Cyprus-Forum.com

[Get Real!]

So how old is English.?

Much older than anything "Greek" that's for sure! But what am I saying... the only thing newer than "Greece" is Israel!

[kurupetos]

No, we don't want to adopt any newly-constructed Germanic languages here in Cyprus!

Ignore him, because he's not a Cypriot.

Look Charloui, I am Cypriot and Nationalistic as they come, so you better get that straight before you make a fool of yourself.

What are you foreigners doing on a Cypriot Forum anyway?

Yawn...

[kimon07]

What are you foreigners doing on a Cypriot Forum anyway?

You mean Australians?

[Cap]

I'm beginning to like this Neo Cypriot concept.


"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

[GreekIslandGirl]

So how old is English.?

Much older than anything "Greek" that's for sure! But what am I saying... the only thing newer than "Greece" is Israel!

Not the Republic of Cyprus?

[supporttheunderdog]

So how old is English.?

Much older than anything "Greek" that's for sure! But what am I saying... the only thing newer than "Greece" is Israel!

do not confuse the modern state of Greece with Greek Language or peoples as there have been peoples speaking some forms of Greek in the Aegean region for probably 3700 to 4500 years or so. It was almost certainly not the original language, probably being introduced from the North via the Balkans or possibly along the Southern coast of the Black sea, As an existing IE language only Sanskrit has a similar attested age.

[supporttheunderdog]

My sympathies go out to you. English is even more adulterated than we previously thought. Its Germanic foundations are enriched with Latin, Greek and French. It's an OK language today.

None of your articles actually date modern English as being any older than post-Shakespeare, and Olde English arrived in waves from the continent and most latterly around the 7th to 8th century AD.

But it's interesting that one of your sources still considers it essential to look to Greek historians for your identity ...

"Further uncertainty surrounds
the timing of the arrival of Celtic languages
to the British Isles, and indeed the definition of the
term ‘Celtic’ itself, which was never applied to Britain
by Greek and Roman historians (Renfrew 1987)."



Anyway, the only true authority on the history of English is my darling David Crystal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book ... words.html

but we don't. What we are looking at is what others thought of our identity at that time.

What all the above mentioned sources point to is that the Germanic roots of English can probably be found in pre-Roman Britain, in particular in Southern and Eastern Britain rather than a post Roman invasion.

I don't know of you saw the recent "meet the ancestors revisited" program where the burials were reassessed. They did Analysis of the bodies. So far all local born. The presenter made the point that the number of Invaders was probably in range of thousands, only a very small percentage in terms of population estimated to be 2 million: the mass invasion just never happened. Lack of swords is probably a class and status item rather than race item, swords being very valuable items which are hard to make, and costly, and where probably only the rich could afford to bury someone with such a valuable high status object. Chances are most peasants etc would not have had a sword. If they fought they were probably armed with agricultural tools.